We are pleased to announce a new phase within Beyond Extreme Energy's FERC Into FREC campaign. We're seeking to dismantle the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and replace it with the Federal Renewable Energy Commission (FREC) which would be fully focused on addressing climate change through the rapid transition to renewable energy, community control of energy development, and environmental justice.
Since its launch three years ago the FERC Into FREC campaign has gained support from climate and environmental organizations, 2020 Presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, and a number of members of Congress who we've been communicating with.
BXE, Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund, Food and Water Action and Hip Hop Caucus are about to launch a drive to raise the profile of this FERC Into FREC campaign. Our main tactic is a candidate’s pledge. Our intention is to gather as many endorsements as possible for this pledge from any candidate running for office in the US over the next four months leading up to the November 8 election. Through that work we can do education and raise consciousness about how problematic FERC continues to be and why it needs to be replaced. We would also then have in January of 2023 a group of people elected to Congress, and other elected officials, who have signed on whom we can work with.
Please fill out this form to sign on and indicate what forms of support your organization can help provide in the campaign to replace FERC with FREC!
For climate justice and a new FREC,
Ted Glick,
for Beyond Extreme Energy, Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund,
Food and Water Action and Hip Hop Caucus
FERC to FREC Candidate’s Pledge:
As a candidate for public office in 2022, I pledge to
support legislation to replace the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
with the Federal Renewable Energy Commission, whose job it will be to
ensure just, safe and affordable green energy for all people in this
country.
It is time to replace FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, with FREC, a Federal Renewable Energy Commission. There is historic precedent for this. FERC was created in 1977 when Congress enacted legislation to replace the Federal Power Commission, created in 1935, with FERC. Over 40 years later, with a very different energy reality than 1977, it’s time for a new FREC to replace the old FERC.
We must create an independent energy agency which leads the critically needed shift away from all fossil fuels to jobs-creating, justice-based, renewable green energy from proven renewable technologies including, but not limited to, ecologically-sound solar, wind, small-scale hydro and geothermal. FREC would be about renewables first, ensuring that distributed energy resources and transmission of sustainably-generated electricity are provided to all, with priority to environmental justice communities long damaged by fossil fuel production. Neither war nor anything else can alter this as a top, immediate priority.
FERC cannot play this leadership role given its decades-long history as a captured agency by industry.
A new FREC must center genuine public participation in decision-making from affected communities, particularly low-income, Indigenous and people of color communities which have historically suffered from environmental pollution and governmental injustice.
A new FREC would be funded not from fees by industries applying for permits, a reality which has corrupted FERC decision-making, but by Congressional appropriations.
And a new FREC would prioritize making information and data easily accessible and shareable to the public, as well as simplify the process for informed public participation in decision-making about proposed new energy projects.
